Myer spokesman Steven Carey said more than 1100 new items would be available for purchase on the Myer website from 6pm tomorrow - the first time the company had launched its stocktake sale early online.

While some customers were expected to stick to the annual tradition of queueing outside stores on Monday to snap up a bargain, Mr Carey said more and more people were choosing to shop from the comfort of their own home.

‘‘We’ve got to cater to both the online and the bricks-and-mortar customer,’’ Mr Carey said.

‘‘I think [Myer chief] Bernie Brookes has made no secret of wanting to have more of a multi-channel approach, and this is another step we’re taking as a business to ensure we’re meeting the changing demands of customers.’’

It comes as electronics giant Harvey Norman, which has long complained about the rise of international online shopping, began selling computer games this week via a website in Ireland that lets Australian consumers avoid GST.

Chairman Gerry Harvey said the company had launched the initiative reluctantly. "We are not doing this with a great deal of joy. We have been able to do this for a long time, we have held off," he said. "But you get to a point where you can’t hold off."

Mr Carey said if Myer’s online experiment this year was successful, it could become an annual event.

‘‘We’ve done it for for two reasons. One is it’s convenient for customers and gives them an opportunity to shop from the comfort of their own home. Secondly, a lot of people will possibly use it from a research perspective to work out what they want to buy ahead of the Boxing Day itself,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s our first year doing it so, like all businesses, you need to test things to work out whether it is going to be right.’’

Professor Steve Worthington, from Monash University’s faculty of business and economics, said the early online sales were an attempt to get shoppers to part with their cash as quickly as possible in troubled economic times.

"No doubt on Christmas day there will be people on the television advertising online sales, where you can buy something on Christmas day online and pick it up on Boxing Day. Some people are starting Boxing Day sales on Christmas eve," Professor Worthington told radio station 3AW.

"It’s an attempt to keep bringing things forward, to try to get people to go and spend as quickly as possible.

"As consumers we’re gradually wising up to this and we’re thinking to ourselves, if we miss out on Christmas eve or Boxing day, it will be on sale in another month or so."

The news comes after another day of carnage in the retail sector, with outdoor clothing and equipment company Kathmandu yesterday joining a growing list of high-profile names that have had their share prices savaged after revealing trading and profit slumps.

Investors reacted savagely, slashing the company’s share price from $1.65 to $1.23 - a drop of more than 25 per cent. It came days after shares in Billabong plummeted more than 30 per cent after the surf retailer forecast a decline in revenue.

At the close of trade yesterday, Billabong shares were down almost 80 per cent from their highest level this year.

The shares of several other big retailers - David Jones, Myer, Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi - were off more than 40 per cent from their year-high prices.

Professor Worthington said the troubled world economy was making consumers more cautious about spending, and people were flocking online to get more value for money.

"If you’re not providing value to customers, you’re not going to survive," he said.

"And there are retailers who are doing very well because they provide us with good value and the ones who are not doing too well have lost the plot really, they’ve lost sight of what the value to us as consumers is."